Denis and Y'all:
Here's a fresh approch to our metaphysical questions. I'd like to tell
you about a particular TV show. You're probably telling yourself that it
takes a pretty low-rent philosopher to use a TV show in making his case.
And its not even on PBS!!! But just think of it as good fiction. Pirsig
certainly used fiction to express his philosophy, so there aren't any
MOQ rules against it. And I know it's primarily a social medium, but
that's ok. The topic of this post is social level mediation again, and
so it's only fitting and proper.
Hopefully this approch will lighten things up a little. This way also
explores an area of interest that Denis and I have in common. Denis is
working his way through Joseph Campbell's "The Masks of God" and I've
read a bunch of his stuff. My favorites happen to be his first and last
books, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and "The Inner Reaches of Outer
Space". Most of his stuff is rich with detail and its easy to get bogged
down. It easy to get lost in the maze of unfamiliar and exotic names. A
person shouldn't have to be a mythologist to grasp the meaning of social
level values, although it sure wouldn't hurt.
TV shows are just a little more accessible than ancient gods and
classical epic poems. NORTHERN EXPOSURE is a TV show that Joseph
Campbell could have written himself. In fact, in the final episodes the
main character goes on the HERO'S JOURNEY, just as Campbell describes in
the book. It can only be seen in re-runs now and I just started watching
it again after not having seen it for years. I've seen it 6 or 8 times
since we got the cable hooked up and its moved me deeply almost every
time. (Its OK, you've got the right to laugh at me.)
There is NO WAY my re-telling can match the real thing. And maybe you
wouldn't even like the real thing, but that's not really the point. My
taste in fiction has very little to do with what I'm trying to say about
social level mediation, which in this case has to do with the interface
between mythology and psychology. Its about SLM on a personal level.
THE BASIC PREMISE of the show is the classic fish-out-of-water scenario.
Joel is a young MD from New York city. In order to pay off his student
loans he's been forced to take a job as a Doctor in small town Alaska.
He hates it, of course. But that all changes over time, as I said he
takes the Hero's Journey and he eventually finds his way home. But oh
the lessons we learn along the way! Its so smart and so fun. In my
opinion, its the best TV show ever made. Every episode has several
threads that always come together in the end. And the small twon itself
serves as a microcosom of the larger society, with all sorts of people
living there.
Like Ed, the young floundering orphan half-breed who can't decide if he
wants to be a Shaman or a film-maker. (I think the mixture of native and
white culture in Ed and in the town would please Pirsig.) He also works
part time at the General store and for Maurice, the wealthy retired
astronaut. In one particular Episode ED gets pretty excited when Maurice
decides the town ought to have a film festival and he puts Ed in charge
of the whole deal.
Meanwhile, Leonard is trying to teach ED how to be a Shaman and they are
going around town asking all the "white" people about their "healing
stories". Most folks don't really know what he's tralking about and they
tell the Shaman and the Shaman-in-training the small fragments of folk
tales that they can remember.
Paul Bunyon chopped down trees real fast, but no one knows why he did it
or what it means. Oh yea, and he had a big blue ox. "Oh" the Shaman
says, "And did the ox have some magical powers or transcendent meaning?"
Oh, jeez, I don't think it was anything like that. But he was big and he
was blue.
John Henry beat the steam shovel in a digging contest but it killed him.
"And how does this tale help you with your life?", the Shaman asks. Uh,
well... I dunno? But it was a hell of a contest.
And then he hears all those urban legends, like the tiny dog brought
home from a vacation and it turns out to be a large rat, or the lady
with a bug infested hairdo, or the too casual lover who wakes the next
morning to find one of his kidneys has been removed. Leonard and Ed are
increasingly confused as they survey the town for white healing stories.
Leonard blames himself and Ed is more insecure about his future than
ever.
And guess what, the festival isn't working out too well either. Ed has
picked the movies and the theme that'll tie it all together, cause he
loves that kind of stuff. He makes reference to a movie at almost every
event. He's always saying things like, "I know what you mean. Its just
like when Humphrey Bogart..." He knows alot about movies and has spent
too much time thinking about the stories and artists themselves rather
than worrying about all the practicle necessities of putting on a
festival. Ed's real excitred about the Orson Wells tribute he's planned,
but Maurice fires him because Ed's failed to devise an advertising plan,
among other things.
Poor Ed. The festival is a bust. He and Leonard found no meaning in the
healing stories they were told. He's not going to be a Shaman or a
film-maker, just a clerk in a small-town. He's depressed and all he can
think to do is watch ""Citizen Kane" one more time before he has to send
the print back. As he's watching it alone in the theater, Leonard comes
and sits down next to him.
After a short conversation they both realize that MOVIE ARE WHITE
HEALING STORIES and Ed realized that they heal him too. Ed realizes that
to be a film-maker IS to be a Shaman. He doesn't have a dilemma after
all. He can be both Shaman and film-maker because they are they same
thing. Thats our problem too. We don't recognize our myths for the
healing power they represent. We spit the medicine out and call it
ignorance, superstition and fantasy. Like children who don't know what's
good for us we won't take our medicine, not even with a spoonsful of
sugar. And this insight was expressed in a single episode and hardly
involved the main characters.
Its a humorous show too. Another episode has Ed getting into a fistfight
on behalf of one of his clients, an athlete who is obsessed with
winning. Ed has to fight her demon for her; the demon of external
validation. Ed meets him at the trailer park, where all the demons live.
The god of external validation has a shiney new trailer and car. His
place is lined with trophies, ribbons and medals. He's dressed in a
stylish double-breasted suit and has perfectly moussed hair. His name is
Oscar Pulitzer. Hilarious, don't you think?
Gotta go. More fish stories later....DMB
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